Question re. usage meter

Now that you are reading, I honestly believe based on my own real world experience (the dish in my back yard) and the posts from countless other knowledgeable, level headed, experienced users on this and the other forum, that the meter is essentially accurate. Like many, I've never had a usage spike that I've not been able to figure out.

99.9% of usage complaints are from people who are actually using the data, they just don't have the time, tools, or expertise to figure out how and why.

But, what about the 0.1%? Is the meter wrong for them? Probably not exactly. Dish alignment and bad weather can both result in data consumption that seems out of whack. Think of it this way, you are talking to someone over a bad telephone connection, "what?" "huh" "say that again"? You have to repeat yourselves multiple times to get the point across. Satellite will work the same way, if something is interfering with a good solid connection, the data may have to be sent multiple times for you to get it cleanly. This all adds up. Hardware problems also happen, perhaps you have a bad modem, corroded connections, etc. These types of things also contribute to the signal quality, and therefore, your data consumption.

Over and above all that, let's say there is a tiny percentage of people who's hardware is fine, aren't experiencing any degradation due to weather etc, yet still experience data loss. Why won't exede admit that there is a problem for them?

Well, that is simple, and it's called. . . the flood gates. . .

Exede admits there is a problem with a very small amount of people, and the flood gates open, everyone who has ever lost data jumps out and says "ME TOO! THIS MUST BE WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!" and these chat boards are overflowing with false claims, those half hour waits for telephone support becomes two hour waits, everyone who has legitimate problems ends up suffering because of mass hypochondria.

For the vast majority of users, the meter is correct. It's your responsibility to know what is on your devices and how to control them. Exede cannot be expected to be psychic and know everything about every device. There have been countless threads with data lowering tips, great free tools for keeping your own usage logs, etc etc.

Now, since it's 4am my time, and my son, who is our internet's primary user for his school is asleep, I'm gonna watch some youtube. I've got a snow blower to fix, and I'm sure I can find a video that will show me how. Because my son's school is more important than keeping my walkway clear without me having to break out the shovel, I have my fun during the free time. We all make sacrifices to live the lives we want to live. One of those sacrifices is high limit internet, make the best of it, and enjoy your life, you'll live longer.

It pretty obnoxious to write I don't have time, tools or expertise to figure out why my data is being used up. I'm not looking to get a masters degree in satellite communications. I'm going on the word of the company that they were selling me 10 gb of data.

However they failed to mention they don't measure their data like every other internet service. There data measure over 6 times as much (according to exede employee) compared to cable, mobile etc. That's misleading and they misrepresent their product.

On top of that customer service is less then helpful. I have called and emailed and no one can get back to me. Plus I can't cancel my service without large penalty charges.

Maggie - Wow, no PC huh? The data usage discrepancy is a puzzler. Hope you can figure that one out, cuz I would like to know the answer also. I do know on my Android phone, I have the "data restriction" flag set, which means it won't do big downloads or update applications on the cell signal, but waits until it has a Wi-Fi connection. You might check on that one, if the iPhone has something equivalent.

Starring Matter, you are like me, but I am no 'techie'. My main complaint with ViaSat, Exede Internet is billing accountability. I dutifully take daily screenshots of the speedometer-styled billing cycle cumulative usage meter. The numbers show data used in gigabytes, percent of allowance used, and number of days remaining in the current billing cycle... no problem. That data can be manipulated and entered into an Excel spreadsheet.

But ... my issue is with billing statements. They show the categories of usage fee, taxes and equipment rental but do not disclose the amount of data used. I download all of my monthly statements for natural gas (home heating and hot water) and electricity to monitor my daily and seasonal consumption. With Exede I am on the Exede-10 promotional plan with 20GB per billing cycle for the first six months. In March my plan allowance will be 10GB. All that I am doing is learning my data usage habits. With my previous ISP I was never under a data allowance or had not come near exceeding a billing cycle data allowance.

Take a look at your utility billing statements. They will show gallons of heating oil, hundreds of Kilowatt hours of electricity, gallons of water.... Even your wireless statements show data usage. Have you ever filled your car with gasoline from a pump that did not show number of gallons pumped?

I have called customer support at Exede several times asking for current data usage. Yesterday was the first time the rep told me my current data usage! That is progress! Now let's see if the billing department can tally that and include it with my bill cycle statement.

Everyone, including myself, has been requesting a better usage meter with some history for up to three years now. At least it's something we all agree on.

In the meantime, we resort to other methods - Satellite Restriction Tracker, router traffic monitoring feature, third part tracking applications, etc.

My router's traffic monitoring was the most useful one that allowed training myself on my usage habits. Eventually with practice and and time - it sort of becomes second nature, and I only check in on it occasionally when something dramatically changes, whether my habits, a new device or an obvious Exede change. But in my case modem and router are on 24/7 and it's pretty much dead on with what the usage meter says.

Old Labs, you are right on. We have hopes that Exede will come up with a better data tracking app, but until then I have my router keeping track for me. My router and modem are always on 24/7/365, and in the last 3 years, I have seen both within a very small percentage of each other. I keep a closer watch on my data usage when my kids come to visit, they all have the luxury of fast and unlimited cable internet, and tend to be data hogs.

The bottom line is that the price we pay for internet is we should be getting unlimited uage being as there are no wires, no linemen needed for it and we pay for the equipment and the electric to operate and supply it on our end plus the labor. The larger sites (Facebook etc.) are the ones that use up most of our data this restricts websites that would love to have you visit them but data restrictions limit them also. Internet access should be unrestricted how it is used should not be determined by an ISP. I wish I could have had a trial period before signing up for 2 years. The problem with wireless service is there limited competition and all the prices are about the same.

I think you left out a few costs and investments ViaSat has incurred in building, launching, placing a satellite into orbit, supporting it and and the ongoing costs of supporting the Exede product itself in determine the plan prices.

Not exactly cheap, and looking at the Exede quarterly financials you might find "price gouging" isn't occurring in terms of return on investment.

As far as unlimited data goes, we're dealing with a fixed amount of resources up there over the equator someplace.

P.S. Sorry about the Pack, I was hoping for a different Superbowl match up than we have now.

Hello Julie, I am sorry it took me so long to respond to your
post here. Been having trouble responding. I did respond to your email
earlier today and look forward to straightening this out for you. As far
as the KB article goes, the information included above is not %100
accurate. If you'd like to go over that article together to clarify
what's going on, it will need to be done off public forum as those
articles and their numbers are employee facing information. Thank you.